EVs DO NOT EMIT MORE PM
Recently @OECD published a report about particulate matter (PM) from road transport. Newspaper headlines blared that electric vehicles where worse than combustion vehicles. That conclusion was wrong according to the report itself.
Let me show you.
The table comparing electric and combustion engines is on page 92. I took averages of low and high values to get the graph in the first tweet.
We have ignored this problem for too long, and there's more here than simply exhaust!
1) Electric vehicle weight
It estimates batteries at 10 kg/kWh when in reality it's already below half of that. So it makes electric vehicles much too heavy and doesn't take into account that in 2030 they will be much lighter still.
We know that the stuff that comes out of the exhaust pipe is really bad for your health.
How that compares to sand and rubber from the road (gram for gram and particle for particle) is still completely unclear. They state this clearly themselves.
But how much is how bad and what is the impact of particle size? For the stuff that's not from the exhaust we basically have no idea.
We know particles emitted from the road and the wheels of cars make us sick but that's about it. More research is urgently needed so we can avoid millions of deaths.
By switching to electric vehicles we are probably eliminating some of the most harmful emissions (from tailpipes and brake pads).
We could try to make tires more wear resistant (probably not a top priority of manufacturers).
We can construct roads in a way that traps part of the particles or we might even vacuum them up before they are released out into the open.https://t.co/mxA62vhuDG
More from Economy
Thread on eminent people supporting farm laws:
Dr. Gita Gopinath, Chief Economist at IMF says "Farm bills are in right
Dr. Surjit Bhalla, executive director at IMF support farm
Godrej Agrovet Chairman Nadir Godrej tells Bloomberg that agriculture reforms are important for
Prof Ashok Gulati supports new farm
Vice-Chairman of Bharti Enterprises Rajan Bharti Mittal supports the new farm
Dr. Gita Gopinath, Chief Economist at IMF says "Farm bills are in right
Dr. Surjit Bhalla, executive director at IMF support farm
Godrej Agrovet Chairman Nadir Godrej tells Bloomberg that agriculture reforms are important for
Godrej Agrovet Chairman Nadir Godrej tells Bloomberg that agriculture reforms are important for India. pic.twitter.com/N6rnelLn0E
— BloombergQuint (@BloombergQuint) December 11, 2020
Prof Ashok Gulati supports new farm
Vice-Chairman of Bharti Enterprises Rajan Bharti Mittal supports the new farm
Let's discuss how little you actually understand about economics and energy.
The first thing to understand is that energy is not globally fungible. Electricity decays as it leaves its point of origin; it’s expensive to transport. There is a huge excess (hydro) in many areas.
In other words, it can also be variable. It's estimated that in Sichuan there is twice as much electricity produced as is needed during the rainy season. Indeed, there is seasonality to how Bitcoin mining works. You can see here:
Bitcoin EXPORTS energy in this scenario. Fun fact, most industrial nations would steer this excess capacity towards refining aluminum by melting bauxite ore, which is very energy intensive.
You wouldn't argue that we are producing *too much* electricity from renewables, right?
"But what about the carbon footprint! ITS HUGE!"
Many previous estimates have quite faulty methods and don't take into account the actual energy sources. Is it fair to put a GHG equivalent on hydro or solar power? That would seem a bit disingenuous, no?
Well that's exactly what some have done.
The first thing to understand is that energy is not globally fungible. Electricity decays as it leaves its point of origin; it’s expensive to transport. There is a huge excess (hydro) in many areas.
Let's discuss the environmental cost of bitcoin. Because despite all the push for sustainable and green investment in the tech sector, there's a giant smoldering Chernobyl sitting at the heart of Silicon Valley which a lot of investors would prefer you remain quiet about. \U0001f9f5 (1/)
— Stephen Diehl (@smdiehl) January 17, 2021
In other words, it can also be variable. It's estimated that in Sichuan there is twice as much electricity produced as is needed during the rainy season. Indeed, there is seasonality to how Bitcoin mining works. You can see here:
Bitcoin EXPORTS energy in this scenario. Fun fact, most industrial nations would steer this excess capacity towards refining aluminum by melting bauxite ore, which is very energy intensive.
You wouldn't argue that we are producing *too much* electricity from renewables, right?
"But what about the carbon footprint! ITS HUGE!"
Many previous estimates have quite faulty methods and don't take into account the actual energy sources. Is it fair to put a GHG equivalent on hydro or solar power? That would seem a bit disingenuous, no?
Well that's exactly what some have done.
